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Don't miss this opportunity to see local, small-scale farming up close and personal. Join us for a rambling tour of three local farms in the Upper Allyn/Dungog areas. You will visit the last independent small-scale dairy farm on the Upper...

This workshop is part of our "Preserving Series" that runs from July to December 2019. In this hands-on workshop you will learn the basics of jam making. Understand the nature of chutneys and why they are in the same “family”...

Slow Food Earth Market Maitland The Slow Food Earth Market, Maitland is a fresh produce market is held on the first and third Thursday of the month in The Levee from 12.30pm - late afternoon. All regular stalls contain produce that...

We want your spare (but clean) shopping bags. If you have amassed a collection of reusable shopping bags and just don't know what to do with them, we'd love to help you out - we'll take them. We use the...

Join Us

Slow Food Hunter Valley is a group of volunteers who offer their time to support and run projects that raise awareness of the importance of eating seasonal and local produce, encourage food diversity, help distribute (and redistribute) food on a more equitable basis, keep our food clean and reduce food waste. Most of all, Slow Food Hunter Valley seeks to protect taste, flavour and biodiversity through local projects, campaigns, community engagement and educational programs.

We welcome new members, volunteers and friends who would like to join us. As a member of Slow Food Hunter Valley you will join a group of local volunteers at work and play. As a Slow Food member you will also be part of a large international, national and local network of committed individuals who are focussed on keeping our food clean, saving food cultures and working to maintain biodiversity. As a member of Slow Food Hunter Valley you will be asked to do as little or as much as you feel comfortable doing. You will meet people, have the opportunity to participate in projects, you will make a difference, and above all else you will have fun! See our Membership page.

How Slow Food is Helping

In the last half of 2018 and into 2019 Slow Food Hunter Valley provided drought-relief boxes (packed full of nutritious food) to farmers in the Upper Hunter Valley. The initiative didn’t just help “feed our future” in the Upper Hunter. This also stimulated the economy of our local small-scale growers because any food purchased for the boxes was purchased from them. It also provided a vehicle that allowed our community to get involved (through cash donations or by giving produce for the boxes). Make no mistake, we ARE feeding our future.

At Slow Food Hunter Valley – in just one year – we turned 704 kg of fresh food into nutritional meals for the local community centre. The food is distributed to locals who are finding it difficult to make ends meet. This process is made possible through donations from local farmers, home gardeners with excess produce, and Greenhills Fresh Grocer. As many as seventeen Slow Food Hunter Valley volunteers have helped with the preparation and cooking at the Reader’s Cafe in East Maitland.

To encourage farmers and chefs in and around the Hunter Valley to focus on – and work with – local, seasonal produce we offer a scholarship to Turin, Italy to attend the bi-annual Terra Madre (Mother Earth) event. In 2016 Tom Christie, a local small-scale farmer, was the winner of the inaugural scholarship. The experience provided Tom with exposure to a wealth of knowledge from farmers across the globe and enabled him to realise the potential of small-scale farming. This scholarship will be open again in 2018.

Slow Food Hunter Valley continues to support school gardens such as the Telarah Public School who runs a Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program. The garden provides 130 children access a two-hour program each fortnight. As the program has matured, the teaching focus in the classes has widened to include applied learning in maths, science and English. It also engages parents who volunteer in the program and includes all student teachers who are rostered on for a turn in the garden.

Fresh food is still achievable even in remote outback communities. In Central Australia, Slow Food Hunter Valley is partnering with Watarrka Foundation and working with local Indigenous leaders and schools to grow fresh food. The supplies fresh produce to locals who would otherwise have to travel up to 600km (one-way) to buy what can be grown in their own back yard. Our Fresh Food in Remote Communities project has been ongoing for three years.

Slow Food Hunter Valley is made up of everyday people who, together, realise they can do a lot of great things that make a difference. And from time-to-time, a we even do a few extraordinary things. You too can make a difference. In fact, everyone can make a difference. Your contribution, regardless of how large or small, helps. So become a member, volunteer, come to a Talking Dinners event, attend our meetings, or make a donation. Whatever you can do, it all makes a difference.

Our donors / supporters

Our work is made possible because of the generosity of our donors / supporters, our members and friends, and volunteers from the community.

For this reason we would like to acknowledge Maitland City Council, Lake Macquarie City Council, Our Neighbourhood Community Grants, Margaret Sivyer, Readers café and Larder, and Seraphine.

Please see our donors/supporters page for a full list.

We would also like to thank all members and friends who have volunteered their time to help redistribute food to those who are in need, raise funds to help local farmers, increase awareness of the issues associated with our current food system, and much more.

Our work is made possible because together we are able to make a difference.

Our friends at Warners Bay Community Garden Inc. volunteered to turn several boxes of donated aprons into bags that can be used...

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Acknowledegment of Place

Slow Food Hunter Valley acknowledges that we live and work on the lands of the Wannaruah, Worimi & Awabakal people, who cared for and shared the abundance of our Mother Earth, sustainably, for thousands of years. They inspire us in our vision of good, clean, fair food for all.

We wish to pay our respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging and we honour the important role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within Australia and the Slow Food community.